


The Worst Time to Get Noticed

by Lumelle



Category: Tennis no Oujisama | Prince of Tennis
Genre: Happy Ending, Injury, M/M, Meeting the Parents, Worry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-07
Updated: 2018-01-07
Packaged: 2019-03-01 20:58:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,203
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13303077
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lumelle/pseuds/Lumelle
Summary: When Minami hears Atobe is in hospital, of course he's going to show up. No matter how many people are surprised to see him there. It's not like he's just going to look away while his boyfriend might be dying, after all.





	The Worst Time to Get Noticed

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MidnightFragments](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightFragments/gifts).
  * Translation into עברית available: [העת הגרועה ביותר לתשומת לב](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13902837) by [Translaions (MidnightFragments)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightFragments/pseuds/Translaions)



> Atobe/Minami was mentioned. I can't resist a challenge.

For all the times that Minami had felt exasperated at the amount of people that seemed to follow Atobe around, he was quietly glad for the Hyoutei regulars being rather easy to find as he rushed down the hospital corridor. He would have been hopelessly lost if he hadn’t been able to follow the familiar voices. They really shouldn’t have been so loud in the first place but then there was no helping the likes of Shishido and Gakuto. It wasn’t like Minami was going to call them out for it, not when it led him to the correct place.

The waiting room was filled with palpable tension, as was to be expected with a bunch of worried teenagers crowding around. They hardly even seemed to notice Minami’s arrival, not that he cared. He made a beeline for Kabaji’s enormous form, slipping between the white and blue jackets with practised ease. Goodness knew that waiting for people to notice him and step aside would have been useless.

“Kabaji?”

Kabaji turned to look at him. For reasons Minami wasn’t entirely clear on, Kabaji had never had a problem noticing him. Perhaps it was because of Atobe, or maybe it was a side effect of Kabaji himself ofter getting overlooked. Whatever the reason, though, he was now giving Minami his full attention, brows furrowed in worry. “You came.”

“Of course I came, you texted me that Atobe’s in the hospital!” Minami tried not to sound too exasperated, but it was difficult. “What happened? How is he?” He tried to tell himself it was probably nothing, Atobe did like to make things more dramatic than they rightfully deserved to be, but Atobe’s dramatic tendencies wouldn’t account for the rest of the team all looking so worried.

“He fell.” Minami tried not to get frustrated at the lack of detail, but it was hard. He knew Kabaji often had trouble with words, but surely even he could summon up more in this situation? “It’s… bad.”

“Bad?” That wasn’t good. Well, by definition it wasn’t, that was what bad meant, but that wasn’t the point damn it. “How bad?”

Kabaji hesitated, then turned to look to his side. “…Oshitari?”

Oshitari turned away from Gakuto’s rather loud rant, blinking at Kabaji. “Hm? Something the matter?” Then his eyes fell on Minami, and their gaze sharpened in an odd way behind his glasses. “Oh, it’s you.”

“What do you mean, it’s me?” Minami blinked.

“You’re Minami, right? The one Atobe’s been going on about recently.” Oshitari smirked, though there was none of his usual smugness in the expression. “I swear, he just won’t shut up about you. At least it’s a nice change from talking about himself.”

“He talks about me?” That was news to Minami. While their relationship wasn’t exactly a secret, they weren’t open about it either. Minami’s friends knew he was dating, sure, but he doubted anyone but Higashikata actually knew who his boyfriend was. Well, except maybe Dan-kun, who had a rather worrying habit of finding out things he wasn’t supposed to know.

“All the time. Nice to put a face to the name at last, I suppose.” Minami would have protested, pointing out that this wasn’t exactly the first time they had ever seen each other, but there was no point in that. Not now, when he needed to know more. “So you’re here about Atobe, then.”

“Obviously.” Now, he was getting frustrated. “Is someone going to finally tell me what happened?”

“He got tackled by a fan.” Then, before Minami could say anything about how that didn’t sound very serious, Oshitari added, “At the top of a staircase.”

Minami wasn’t one to swear, but at that, a few choice words did creep up to his mind. He bit down on them, though, trying to remain calm. “Is he…”

“We don’t know. If he’s lucky it’s just bruises and a concussion. If not…” Oshitari let the rest hang unsaid in the air. Still, Minami could fill in the blanks well enough. He didn’t have any trouble with coming up with horrible scenarios.

“Trust Atobe to be literally too popular for his own good.” Minami sighed, running a hand over his face. “I… is it okay if I wait here?”

“I’d say make yourself comfortable, but I doubt that’s going to happen, given the circumstances.” Oshitari adjusted his glasses. “I’m sure Atobe wouldn’t want us chasing you off, anyway.”

There was more in the statement than Minami could unpack right now, so he simply nodded and looked around for an empty seat. There was one next to the three Jirou had stretched himself across, so Minami sat down and proceeded to get ignored for the time being.

He wasn’t sure how long he had been sitting around with nothing to do but fidget and wait when someone new arrived in the waiting room. Minami had never seen the woman before, but the resemblance to Atobe was so striking he couldn’t help but surge to his feet, hoping she might have some sort of news. Not that he expected to be noticed anyway, only to be surprised when she barely nodded at some of the others before making a beeline for him.

Minami knew Atobe had parents, of course, but it had always been nothing but theoretical. He’d never met the two, and in fact had come to understand even Atobe’s own contact with them mostly happened through the phone. This hadn’t exactly made him predisposed to think very well of them.

Atobe kept telling Minami his parents were decent, caring people, just very busy. Minami might have been more inclined to believe that if he hadn’t seen the look in Atobe’s eyes sometimes even as he dismissed his parents’ absence with light words and easy smiles. If he’d been more inclined to being rude, he might have made some snarky observations on how starved for attention Atobe clearly was and how that possibly related to his relationship with his parents. That was not his style, though, and as such he had simply been silently fuming about all the choice words he was going to say to Atobe’s parents once they finally met.

Now, standing in front of an elegant-looking woman in an impeccable outfit and shadowed eyes, he found any sharp words stuck in his throat.

“Ah. You are Minami-kun, correct?”

He might have been more surprised at being recognized, but at the moment he was just feeling mostly numb. As such, he simply nodded. “You know my name.”

“Oh, of course I do! Keigo has been very insistent that we should remember it.” There was a slight accent to her words, one that reminded Minami of Atobe’s voice when he got very enthusiastic about something. “It’s strange, he’s not usually so insistent that we know the names of his friends. With you he made sure to even send us pictures so we would recognize you.”

Minami swallowed. Yes, that sounded like a very Atobe thing to do. “Ah. It’s nice to meet you, Atobe-san.”

“Please, call me Elizabeth.” She smiled, though it didn’t quite reach her eyes. Minami supposed he couldn’t blame her, given the circumstances. “I hope we’ll have a chance to speak more soon. For now, thank you for being here. I know it means a lot to Keigo.”

Before Minami could think of anything sensible to say in response she was away, no doubt in search of a nurse or a doctor who could give her more information. Their brief exchange had gained him the attention of the rest of the regulars, though, who all turned towards him like sharks smelling blood.

There was movement behind him, and Minami was startled to realize Kabaji was standing at his shoulder, steady and calming. He made a poor substitute for Atobe and he knew it, but he supposed they both needed someone to lean on right now, metaphorically at least.

Minami wasn’t entirely sure how he answered the various questions shot his way, didn’t even want to know how many of the regulars were weighing each of his answers against whatever Atobe had told them. He did his best, though, trying to distract himself from the dark possibilities taking over his imagination. Yes, he was dating Atobe, yes, he did actually play tennis, and no, he had no idea why Atobe would date someone as plain and uninteresting as him. He couldn’t even bring himself to be insulted by such questions, couldn’t summon up any feelings except a kind of worried numbness.

Kabaji didn’t move anywhere from his side. It was probably the one thing keeping him from breaking into a nervous mess.

Then Atobe-san came back — no, Elizabeth, she had told him to call her Elizabeth — and all the attention turned back to her. Minami barely managed to breath a sigh of relief before he got nudged forward by Kabaji. Still somewhat hesitant, he joined the ring of regulars hoping for news.

“Keigo is awake.” The simple sentence nearly made everyone rush off, but she lifted her hand, snapping her fingers in an eerily familiar fashion. Well, at least now Minami knew where Atobe got it from. “Not yet! They need to still check some things before he can have visitors.”

There were murmured apologies that made her sharp gaze melt into a gentle smile. She looked less like Atobe like this, though their faces were still startlingly similar.

“Thank you. Now, they aren’t sure how bad his concussion is, yet, but he’s awake and reasonably coherent, so they don’t think there is any kind of significant brain injury.” Minami just barely managed to breathe a sigh of relief before she shattered it all over. “However.”

“However?” Gakuto echoed, practically vibrating with anxiety. “What’s wrong with him?”

“Several broken bones, as it happens. Including his arm and several ribs.” Elizabeth folded her arms, hugging herself. “They think it will all heal just fine, but he’s going to lose at least a season.”

“He can’t!” Jirou gasped. “He’s supposed to help us take over the high school team after we graduate!”

There were other protests, too, and Minami’s captain instincts called for him to try to calm them down, but frankly he had the impression Elizabeth had things under control here. She looked less haunted now that they knew Atobe would be all right in the end, and apparently had no trouble riding herd on a bunch of worried teenagers. The resemblance to her son made Minami swallow.

Kabaji was still standing next to him. He was thankful for that, at least.

When they were finally allowed to see Atobe, Minami stuck to the back of the group, letting the regulars crowd around Atobe. Their glorious captain took all the attention in his stride, of course, even though the glimpses Minami caught of him behind the others were awfully pale. Minami had no hope of getting a word in edgeways, but that was fine. He was used to waiting for his turn.

After some time Atobe finally got enough, as he snapped his fingers and announced it was time for everyone to leave. This caused some uproar, yet the protests were left on the level of words, with the team drifting out of the hospital room one by one. Minami was about to follow them, figuring Atobe needed rest, only for Kabaji’s hand on his shoulder to stop him.

“Minami?”

He spun around, finally getting a proper look at Atobe without a wall of Hyoutei regulars between them. Atobe looked awful, his face pale and pained, with bandages covering up far too much of him. Minami felt sick as he saw the cast on Atobe’s arm. It was his right arm, too. Of course it was.

“You’re alive.” Which was a stupid thing to say, really, but it was all he could get out. He’d had plenty of time to think about what to say, yet all those words seemed to leave his mind as he was standing there with nobody but Atobe, Kabaji, and Atobe’s mother in the room. “That’s — that’s good.”

“I should hope you think so.” Atobe’s lips twitched, but there was little humor in his smile. “Thank you for coming to see me.”

“Of course I was going to come!” Minami felt a little indignant. Why was everyone so surprised to see him here? “I got a text saying my boyfriend was in hospital! What else was I supposed to do?” It occurred to him belatedly that perhaps describing himself in such terms wasn’t the wisest thing to do, certainly not in the presence of Elizabeth. Just because Atobe had told his parents about Minami didn’t mean they necessarily knew about their relationship.

Atobe, however, didn’t seem to mind. If anything, his smirk turned into a slightly more genuine smile. “You could have just waited for more news. I wouldn’t have minded. Goodness knows my team can be a lot to handle even when they’re not worried out of their minds.”

“Keigo, darling, you shouldn’t make fun of people for being concerned about you!” Elizabeth clasped her hands over her chest. “When they called me and said you were in such bad condition… oh, I thought my heart was going to stop right then and there!”

Right. Clearly the dramatic tendencies were from his mother, too.

“I will be fine, Mother. The worst thing is that I’ll have to take a break from tennis.” Atobe’s expression wavered for a moment, but then he managed a smirk again. “I’m sure I’ll have plenty of people to help me get back in shape. Naa, Kabaji, Minami?”

“Of course. Maybe I can actually play a level match against you while you’re recovering.” Because goodness knew that no matter how hard he tried, he was not going to equal Atobe at his best. That was fine, though. Atobe’s tennis was one of the things that drew Minami to him in the first place.

It certainly hadn’t been his attitude, after all.

“You know I’d be happy to play you any time, right?” Atobe made a face. “Well. Not right now, obviously.” He indicated his injured arm.

“I know. Still, I also know it wouldn’t be fun for either for us. Not to say I’m bad, but I’m still a doubles player first and foremost.”

“Heh. Maybe I should just play against both you and your partner once I recover.” And there it was again, the attitude.

“You know, Atobe, sometimes I really wonder what I see in you.” Minami was smiling, though, with relief and fondness and amusement all.

“Merely my immense talent, endless charm, and immeasurable beauty, I’m sure.” How could Atobe still manage a smile, even with the creases of pain around his eyes?

Minami snorted, not really feeling the levity but unable to resist the bait. “Yeah, right. I’m pretty sure it’s just your ass. And, okay, your legs are nice too.”

It only dawned on him a second too late that Atobe’s mother was still in the room. Before he could melt into the floor in a puddle of mortification, though, she simply sighed and smiled, her head tilted to the side. “Ah, young love! It reminds me of when Akihito and I were young. Keigo gets his build from his father, you know, you’re not the only one who’s fallen for a nice pair of legs —”

“Mother, please.” At least Atobe sounded almost as embarrassed as Minami felt. It was a small relief, but it was still something. “It’s the first time you’ve ever met my boyfriend, which took me almost dying mind you, and you’re already trying to scare him away.”

“Well, then maybe you should have introduced us in person a bit earlier!”

Atobe sighed, and Minami thought he could hear a tone of bitterness in his voice. “Mother, there literally hasn’t been a single day since Minami and I began dating that you, father, and I have all been in Japan and free of other obligations. I know that you’re both busy, but you don’t get to complain about me not bringing him to meet you if you’re never available.”

“You’re right.” Wait, what? “I wasn’t joking when I said my heart almost stopped, Keigo. All I could think of was how my only son might be dying and I had hardly even seen him in weeks. Even if you are going to be all right, I’m not going to let that happen again.” Elizabeth took on a firm expression that was all too familiar to Minami. “I’m going to call Akihito at once. We both need to rethink our priorities. No business should be more important than our precious Keigo.”

“Father’s never going to go along with that.” Atobe sounded utterly disbelieving.

“Oh, my dear Keigo. It’s like you’ve forgotten who I am.” Great. So apparently even the smirk was genetic. “Minami-kun? I’m sorry I couldn’t meet you under more fortunate circumstances. To make up for it, I would like to invite you over for dinner. Does Saturday work for you? Say, around six? Keigo should surely be home by then.”

“Uh. Sure?” Minami was feeling a bit dizzy. Then, that wasn’t exactly a strange feeling when he was around Atobe. Any Atobe, it seemed.

“Excellent! Don’t worry about bringing anything, just show up on time and it’ll be fine. Oh, Munehiro, you are of course welcome as well. Now, do excuse me, I should be able to catch Akihito if I call him around now.” With that, she breezed out of the room like a queen in her court.

“Huh.” Minami blinked after her, then turned to look at Atobe. “What was that?”

“That, Minami, was my mother.” Atobe looked almost as befuddled as Minami felt, which was a small comfort at least. “Most people assume I take after my father, with all that ambition and leadership qualities and whatnot, but that’s only until they meet my mother. My father is downright subdued compared with her.”

“Right. I can see that.” Minami nodded slowly. “Ah. At least she seemed like she’s going to be around more?”

“I’m not holding my breath. She’s probably just going to forget all about it in two weeks.” Still, there was a hint of hope in Keigo’s voice, enough so that Minami rather desperately hoped that his mother would not forget about her intentions. “Of course, that’s not long enough for you to get out of this mess, so I hope you’re prepared.”

“Oh, Atobe.” Minami finally managed to step up to the side of the bed, taking Atobe’s hand into his own. The one that wasn’t attached to an injured arm, obviously. “I agreed to go out with you of all people. You think I was ever planning on getting away easily?”

“We’ll see if you still say that after I’ve been complaining about my injury for a few weeks.” Atobe squeezed his hand back, though, and that was fine. That was perfectly fine, and Atobe was going to be fine, and somehow Minami would be fine right alongside him, with dramatic parents and all.

This was the point where he finally started crying, but neither Atobe nor Kabaji said anything about it, so that was fine, too.


End file.
